The High Gothic chapel (think light, spindly, and upwards) was constructed in the 13^th century (that’s the 1200s) by Louis IX (Saint Louis) to house the Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, and other Christian relics. What I can’t believe is that they built this intricate masterpiece in only SEVEN years! Considering Notre Dame took almost 200 years, this is mind-blowing to me. Granted, Notre Dame is enormous, and Sainte Chapelle is quite small in comparison, but the intricate details – how was it only seven years!?

During the Middle Ages, having a collection of Christian relics was a way to bring prestige and pilgrims (aka tourists) to your chapel, cathedral, or city. Pilgrims = money = pretty things. In other words, relics were big business; I mean, have you seen or read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett? I’m not exaggerating. Louis IX collected 22 relics and housed them at Sainte Chapelle upon its completion. This put Paris at the forefront of Western Christianity and Paris quickly became a “new Jerusalem” gathering pilgrims from across the world, filing into Saint Chapelle, and allowing Louis to pay off the debt he had acquired by collecting these relics and build pretty things. Most of these relics disappeared during the Revolution, but the Crown of Thorns is now part of the treasury of Notre Dame Cathedral (and, thankfully, was saved during the fire in April 2019).

While the relics have disappeared over the years, the architectural wonder that is this Chapel remains. Though Sainte Chapelle has not been used for worship since the Revolution, it has been open to admirers. And admire it we did!

The windows create a vibrant rainbow of light inside, capped by a painted starry night sky. Don’t be distracted by the arcs of colored light flowing all around you: the real treasure is in the stories depicted within those vibrant panes of glass. The intricately carved stone walls hold immense walls of stained glass telling the story of the world from the Old and New Testaments in 1113 scenes. The Apocalypse is documented in the rose window above the entrance of the chapel in just as many colors. It is truly breathtaking. From the moment we entered the chapel, I’m sure my jaw was on the ground until Jason pulled me out. I could have stayed all day and come back the next. So many colors, so much detail, so much light – a wonder.

The breathtaking chapel is actually the top floor of this monument. Below is another chapel that has a much heavier feel, more like a basement. In fact, this chapel is also ringed in stained glass, though it’s a bit less awe-inspiring than its upstairs neighbor. This chapel was used by the staff of the nearby Palais de la Cité, and its walls and pillars support the heavy lead and glass above, leading to its heavy, basement block feel. Today it houses a collection of artifacts and the museum’s gift shop.

Speaking of today, if you are planning to tour the chapel (of course you are, right?), I highly recommend purchasing your tickets online ahead of time, right here. It is possible to…stand in line all day hoping to get in after all the ticket holders…but we don’t recommend that. Once you have secured your ticket and time, we also recommend taking up your place in the ticket holders line for your designated time only 15 minutes or so before your scheduled time. They don’t let anyone in early, and rarely let anyone in late, so make sure you are in your line when they open the barrier to let your time slot in. No matter how long the line is, if you have a ticket, you’ll get in. We came an hour early and stood at the front of our 1 p.m. scheduled ticket line and made friends with the lady running the barricade, but there was no way she was letting us in early. So much for friendship, amiright? We know the rules of the line very well now.

I highly recommend visiting Sainte Chapelle on your trip to Paris. It’s a quick visit, especially if you can’t get ahold of one of the cards explaining all of the windows to read (there are nowhere near enough, I managed to snag one in Spanish and stumbled through – you’ll never get one in English). Maybe check this link out before you go, or bring it with you to explain each window while you’re there. Or if that’s not your jam and you just like pretty things with no context, you hopefully have a little context now (knowledge is good). If nothing else, you can go walk through a rainbow, and who doesn’t like that idea? It’s a true masterpiece.

The post Basking in the Glory of Sainte Chapelle first appeared on The DeBode Way.

I confess the majority of my familiarity with the Cathedral of Notre Dame comes from the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This basically means I knew nothing about it other than the fact that it was on my list of must-sees (I love church architecture), it’s in Paris, enormous, gorgeous, and many cathedrals across Europe are modeled after it (thank you, Ken Follett). Oh, and it burned in a horrible fire in 2019. So imagine my cathedral-loving glee when we stumbled upon an outdoor exhibition at the Cathedral while it was undergoing its massive renovation following the fire. And here I was just banking on imagining it through scaffolding.

The construction of Notre Dame began in 1163 under the reign of Louis VII and was mostly completed by 1350. That’s almost 200 years of construction! I could bore you to death with all the details of its construction, why it was built the way it was, the materials used, the craftsmanship, the reasons for every single feature, and why a stone building had a flammable roof – but I won’t (Jason says: you’re welcome). Even though I REALLY want to – nerd alert. I’ll just post some of the photos I took of the boards and you can decide for yourself how interested you are and zoom in (or not). Deal? Deal.

What I will tell you is in the fire in 2019 the entire wood and lead roof and spire burned, then collapsed into the vaulted stone ceilings below, collapsing a portion of the vaulted stone ceiling and showering debris into the nave of the church. Suddenly the nave was open to the heavens for the first time in centuries. Once the fire was put out, support poured in from around the globe to restore the cathedral. After two years of careful inspection, planning, and cleaning, the restoration began in 2021.

Now how about this shocker – they plan to have the roof and spire completed in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris!  I was completely floored to read that. How in the world? The building is currently covered in scaffolding and wide open to the heavens! They’ve barely finished removing the debris from the fire, shoring up the walls, and cleaning the fire damage. As I read a little farther along the board displays surrounding the cathedral, I learned that the intent is for the outside of the building to be complete (or at least look that way) in time for the Olympics. The inside will not be completed until December 2024 (or later) to be open for services and tours, but I would imagine you will be able to find plenty of tours of the façade and someone willing to bore you with the details of why it is the way it is next summer. Woo!

Who is headed to France for the Olympics? Or just for the summer in 2024? I’ll need an update! I’m completely blown away by how quickly they plan to have this completed, especially since it looks like they’re planning to use the original medieval plans (thankfully) and building techniques (amazing) to do it. There are obviously many 21st-century construction capabilities in use alongside the medieval techniques, from power tools to gas-powered cranes and metal scaffolding. However, the scale of the damage was immense, and the details being reproduced are so intricate that I just can’t believe the quick restoration rate even with our modern tools. When you’re there standing next to the building and get a sense of the sheer magnitude of its size, this really becomes an almost unimaginable timeline.

We later learned once we were home there is also an underground exhibition in front of the cathedral with artifacts from the fire and things that have been discovered in the restoration process (mysterious sarcophagi). This exhibition is currently open and there are plans for it to remain open through the Olympics next summer. I’m sure that would have been fascinating as well. It looks like we’ll be planning a return trip to Paris sometime in the future!

So, is Notre Dame open? Well, kind of. There’s plenty to see as you walk around the outside, surveying the damage and impressive plans to get it back in tip-top shape. But if you’re wanting to explore the interior, you’ll have to wait a little longer. In the meantime, if anyone is headed there soon, let me know! I’m very curious how the restoration progresses and turns out!

The post The Remarkable Notre Dame: An Unbelievable Timeline to Reopening. first appeared on The DeBode Way.

The Conversation

One of our last mornings in Paris we woke up, had breakfast, and had a conversation that went a little something like this:

            Tasha: So, whatcha wanna do today?

            Jason: Umm, I’m not sure. Any ideas?

            T: The Pantheon keeps popping up on the map…any interest?

            J: Um, sure, but isn’t Athens a little bit of a jaunt for a day-trip?

            T: …

            J: …

            T: Seriously, what are you talking about?

J: The…Pantheon…the temple of the gods, right? The one in Athens? With all the
other ancient temples?

            T: *sigh* Do you mean Rome? That’s in Rome.

            J: Sure? I thought it was in Athens.

            T: No, not Athens (that’s the Parthenon). It’s in Rome.

            J: Oh, okay. So…you…want to go to Rome today?

            T: No. The other one.

            J: ???

            T: …

            J: There’s another one? Another Pantheon?

As it turns out, there is another Pantheon in Europe, and it’s in Paris. Who knew? So, after a little Googling to figure out when it opened, ticket prices, entrance times, and the like, we headed out for a short 30-minute stroll to visit the Pantheon, home of the Gods. Only, that’s not exactly what we ended up finding.

The Other One

What we ended up finding – and Tasha knew about in advance (obviously) – was the other Pantheon, which has a pretty cool story. Let’s ‘splain.

The site of the Pantheon has a LONG history in France and has been occupied by a series of monuments throughout the years. It was original burial place of Saint Genevieve who led the resistance to the Huns threatening Paris in 451. In 508, a church was commissioned there by King Clovis as a basilica and tomb for he and his wife Clotilde. Once complete, the King turned over regular care of the basilica to a chapter of the Genovefains, a group – some would call a cult – affiliated with Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. Her relics were kept there.

Fast-forward about 1200 years and in 1744, King Luis XV (that’s the 15^th Louey, if you’re keeping track), who inexplicably recovered from a serious illness after asking for help from St. Genevieve, decided to dedicate a basilica to the Saint. Heck of a thank you, no? He never saw the completion of the basilica in 1790 when the building was formally declared the St. Genevieve Church.

Okay, now hang on, because this gets a little hard to keep track of. A year after its completion (so we’re now up to 1791), the building was converted into a national necropolis during the French Revolution, which was to house the remains of ‘dignitaries of the empire’ (read: only men, at least until much, much later). But, in 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte disagreed with this decision and converted it into a Catholic church, though he opted to keep the dignitary-stuffed-crypt below for its stated purpose.

In 1815, the entire basilica became a church (including the crypt) but was returned back into the Pantheon 15 years later in 1830. In 1851 the Second Republic converted the building back into a church, and it remained as such until the death of Victor Hugo in 1885, at which point the Third Republic again considered the building the Pantheon – a monument to the heroes of France. Thus, it has remained ever since. Good grief.

So, in sum, at times the basilica has been a church, and at times a secular monument. In its current format, the Pantheon is dedicated to the memory of French citizens who have made a notable contribution to humanity. So, if you’re looking to rub elbows (not literally, that would be both gross and highly illegal) with the likes of Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and even Marie Curie (you know, the famous double Nobel Prize-winning FEMALE scientist?), this is the place to go.

Things to See

All that history aside, the Pantheon ended up being a pretty neat place to visit. The main level is constructed in the formation of a cross, as with so many other Church-related buildings. As you walk around the interior, there are murals and paintings of various important parts of French history. And, true to the history of the building itself, some of those histories are more religious in nature (e.g., some tell the life story of Saint Genevieve and Saint Denis, the patron saint of the French people) while others are slightly more secular, depicting famous French battles (and, presumably, victories were such a thing to exist. I kid, for much of its history the French military was a literal force to be reckoned with), the stories of Kings Clovis, Charlemagne, and Louis IX, PLUS the epic of Joan of Arc – which in the end all have a religious component.

After you’ve had your fill of French history, murals, and art displays, you can descend the stairs to the crypt and stand alongside the giants of French history, several of whom we named above. What’s neat is that you don’t really need to understand how each person contributed to history, as there are little iPad-looking things all over the place that show pictures and tell each person’s story. Very helpful. Lots of good information about folks we had and hadn’t heard of before our visit. And of course, no visit would be complete without snapping a few pictures of our favorite philosophers and writers.

Once you’ve had your fill of time with the dead, up you go, to the heavens, so to speak. Go back up the stairs to the main level, and then follow the winding staircase at the side of the building behind the guard to go even further up (if your name is on the list – get the dome view ticket). At the top of the 206 spiral stairs, you exit out onto the walkway around the Dome. The cool thing about climbing the stairs is the 360-degree, panoramic view of the entirety of Paris you get from here. Keep in mind, it’s not the tallest building in Paris (at least not anymore, though it was for a time), but the views are still pretty impressive. Not sure what you’re looking at? No worries, there are signs at each viewing outcrop that outline the cityscape in view and help you to identify the main buildings. Cool.

Our Conclusion

So, if you’re looking for a fairly low-key place to go the next time you’re in France, we can’t recommend this place enough. It wasn’t super busy (we walked right in with tickets in hand), but it has an impressive amount of information and all things French packed into a relatively small building. To clarify: the building is decently huge, but most French architecture is absolutely ginormous. So, in a comparative sense, this wasn’t that. But that’s okay because it lets you see what you want without spending all day doing it.

Admittedly, I’m not a history fan – it’s in the past, let it go! That said, this was a different way to display history so it was more of a narrative, not history lesson after history lesson, if that makes sense. At least for me, that made it more interesting. The Crypt has a semi-creepy vibe, but it is still interesting and definitely worth the stroll through its pristine stone caverns. And of course, if nothing else, go upstairs to the Dome and get those spectacular views.

And all thanks to the Pantheon. Just…make sure you’re in the right one.

The post The Paris Pantheon, the Temple of the…French Gods? first appeared on The DeBode Way.

We spent three full days in Paris in August and honestly, we’re not sure we loved it. WHAT!? Hear me out…

First Impressions

We buzzed into the city in our little Uber and were dropped at the door of our hotel, the Hotel Vinci Due, a block from the River Seine in the 6^th Arrondissement, in a quiet back alley of a street. It was in a great location, quiet, close to everything we wanted to do, but on my gosh, SO so so so small. The lobby barely had room for the desk, us, and our two suitcases. Once we checked in we were told our room wasn’t ready, so we had to leave and come back later (no waiting around apparently). They immediately took our bags and shuffled us downstairs to the basement to use the facilities (like they read my mind) and then out the door.

We had planned to take a few minutes in the hotel to get our bearings and make a plan, but there we were standing on the street, so we started walking. I knew where we were and what general direction everything was located in (study those maps folks!), so we started off towards the island in the middle of the river where Sainte-Chapelle and Cathedrale Notre Dam de Paris are located. It only took us about 20 minutes to find ourselves on the island, but it was HOT, we hadn’t eaten yet that day, and it was well after noon. So, after seeing the extremely long line for Sainte-Chapelle, we decided to find a café and get something to eat. Just at the end of the Pont Saint-Michel bridge was Le Soleil d’Or, a café with excellent avocado toast and burgers. Perfect.

Revived from the food and people-watching, we set off to find Notre Dame. We didn’t have to go far! The twin bell towers, scaffolding, and crane were visible as soon as we rounded the corner of the café. It was surprisingly busy there considering the cathedral is closed for renovation after a massive fire in 2019. There was a great display on three sides of the cathedral explaining what the workers were doing, how the cathedral had been constructed, and how they were adhering to the original methods to restore it. I found it extremely fascinating, but I’m a giant nerd. We’ll tell you more about it in next week’s post.

The hotel called while we were at Notre Dame to tell us our room was ready, so we headed back to unpack and make a plan for the evening and the next day. We smashed ourselves into the hotel’s tiny elevator – two people, no bags (they’d been delivered to our room), we were on top of each other, and I was having flashbacks to our elevator entrapment last summer in Spain (#claustraphobia). Oh dear. We made it to the top and took the stairs after that. It was only the 5^th floor…exercise.

N. B. In the US, folks often prefer higher floors in their hotels for the great views. The same is true in Europe, but keep in mind that the elevators commonly don’t go all the way up to the top floor. For whatever reason, they’ll go to the second-highest floor, after which you’ll take the stairs up to the top, dragging your luggage behind you. Not usually a huge issue, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Our room…so unique, so tiny. It was gorgeous, but oh mylanta, there was barely room to turn around. The bathroom was located up a tiny set of stairs and the room itself had enough space for the bed, barely. It was quite the circus act finding places to put our things and move around each other (seriously, are the French that much smaller than us?). But, there was a bottle of prosecco on ice and two glasses waiting for us, so we sat on the bed and got to work on that.

Is this the Magic?

We went for a stroll a few hours later looking for a place for dinner. We found ourselves in Saint Germain Des Pres and located a little Italian Restaurant, Chez Bartolo (because when in France, one eats…Italian, right?). We ordered pizzas after a short wait and barely managed to sit down before the sky opened up and poured the entire time we were there. Luckily, our outdoor seats were covered by the awning and it was just our feet being sprayed with rain bouncing off the cobbles as we ate. It was bliss. The rain stopped just in time for our stroll back to the hotel after dinner. We were hoping to find some macaroons, but no luck that day. Instead, we crossed the bridge by the Louvre and stood in its courtyard as the sun set. That place is absolutely massive (the Louvre, not the sun. Well…okay, the sun is pretty big, too).

The next day we went for a very lengthy walk. After breakfast in the tiniest breakfast room ever – it was adorable, but it made me feel like a giant American – we laced up our shoes and set off in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. It took us about 30 minutes before it was suddenly before us, along with a massive crowd of people. Busy day for the tower. Also, it’s brown, I totally thought it was red or gray. We opted not to stand in line all day to ride the elevators to the top and continued on our walk. Next up, the Arc de Triomphe. We found it rather quickly and walked all the way around it snapping photos. They appeared to be filming something that day, so there was a lot of green screen and production vehicles about. We also chose to not go to the top of the Arc.

We wandered back towards our hotel down the Champs Elysees. Busy busy busy. We veered off on a side street when Jason mentioned wanting to see where the US Embassy was. It turns out, it’s right next to the Elysee Palace, and they are NOT fans of you taking any photos near there. Whoopsie. Just to clarify, they’re perfectly fine with you taking pictures of the Palace, it’s just the US embassy you can’t photograph. Who knew? We wandered along the Place de la Concorde and back across the river bridge to find a late lunch. We ducked into a corner café (Café Concorde) for some goat cheese rolls, French fries, and a glass of well-earned wine – bad decisions were made in the dairy department, especially when I got overzealous and snagged a strawberry crème tart at Boulangerie Eric Kayser before we went to the hotel. It turns out I am STILL allergic to dairy in France – oops.

After putting in 11 kilometers (just shy of 7 miles for our non-metric-using American friends), this was the day we took some of the afternoon to get some work done. Jason had new classes to prep and I started writing for you all and updating boutique spreadsheets. In fairness, we didn’t work at all for almost a week. That is a record for both of us! That evening we had reservations at Les Antiquaires for dinner. We recommend this one – great food and service with a smile (which is hard to come by in France)!

Finally Settling In

Another day! Zero plans. We stewed over what to do for the day during an extended breakfast. Sometimes the best plan is no plan. (Jason says: this is what I’ve been saying!) I kept seeing the Pantheon pop up on the map when we were looking for restaurants, so we booked a time slot with a rooftop viewing and set off on another walk to give it a gander. Honestly, I thought we were booking a tour of a cathedral, but it turns out, the Pantheon is a museum to the heroes of France. Yes, it has been a church from time to time, but the majority of its lifespan has been as a museum. A museum with a crypt. Perfect. After a few hours of admiring the paintings and statues, and saying hello to Victor Hugo and Pierre & Marie Curie in the crypt it was our turn to climb the spiral stairs to the rooftop dome. Subconsciously, this is why we didn’t go up in the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe. However, the staircase conquered, we’re happy to say this is the best view in Paris! Highly recommended.

After walking the entire perimeter of the dome, we climbed back down the spiral stairs and went in search of bookstores (Tasha) and lunch (Jason) on our way back to the hotel. There are a ton of bookstores in Saint Germain! Unfortunately, I didn’t buy any because my suitcase was already too full. Also, many were closed as the owners were away on holiday. We settled on Leon for lunch (which it turns out is a seafood chain) because they had mussels and that sounded delightful. Well, after they brought us a basket of bread that we devoured while scanning the menu, they informed us they were out of steamed mussels. Poo. So we again ended up with French fries (why the obsession with fries?? [Jason says: because we were in France, obviously!]) and a little salad with cold, shelled mussels. It was the perfect little snack to share. We had big dinner plans.

During our breakfast planning session earlier that day, we decided to go all out and take a river dinner cruise. This turned out to be the best time. We only had to walk a couple blocks to the river to get on the boat. There are TONS of river cruises to choose from. We noticed a few the day before that were loaded down with so many people we truly had no idea how the boat was floating. The one we chose, Le Calife, turned out to be the perfect size, had amazing food, and got us to the Eiffel Tower JUST as it started to sparkle at 10 PM. I have to admit…it was kind of magical. There’s nothing like standing on the front of a boat with the wind in your face, sailing into the sunset [*spreads arms wide apart*…*cues up Titanic theme song*]. Plus the food and company were great, so it turned out to be a pretty great night for our last night in Paris.

A Final, Dreamy Stop

The next morning we checked out of the hotel after breakfast and had them hold our bags. We had one more stop to make. Remember how I said the line for Sainte-Chappelle was insanely long? Well, I managed to snag us some tickets for a time slot right before we had to head to the airport hotel. This was the ONE thing I wanted to do in Paris in case we never came back. We went about an hour early since the line had been so crazy a couple of days before, but it turns out that is completely unnecessary if you have tickets. You can show up about 15 minutes before your time slot to get in line and they will let you in at your reserved time. We made friends with the gal manning (erm…womanning?) the line since we stood there for so long. Her job was frustrating (seriously, just read the signs, folks), we shared lots of eye rolls and shrugs with her at the questions she was asked. People are funny.

We finally were let in, went through security, and walked into Sainte-Chapelle. Oh my glorious stars. It was everything I had ever dreamed of. (Jason says: do people really dream of random medieval chapels? That’s a thing? [Tasha says: um yes, I do]) The colors are magnificent! I wanted to read about each and every window, but I could only find a card in Spanish (which I can pretty much read, but slowly), and Jason was reminding me we needed to catch a ride to the airport hotel. Sigh. Fine. I snapped a photo to read later. I did manage to snag a book, my only souvenir, about the symbolism in the construction of cathedrals. I can’t wait to read it and have it as a reference as we continue to visit churches and cathedrals in Europe. (Jason says: sigh…more churches).

We went back to the hotel to collect our bags after another quick lunch at Le Soleil d’Or. Then we tracked down another Uber and were off to the airport Hilton Hotel (which was thankfully MUCH bigger) to organize all our stuff for our flight home the next morning. The Hilton is right next to the train station that takes you into the airport terminal, so it was the perfect location. It has a great restaurant and breakfast as well.

So, How Was France in the End?

The final verdict: Did we enjoy Paris and our time in France? Complicated answer.

We thoroughly enjoyed the slower pace of the French countryside. Our favorite hotel was the Hotel Domaine de la Tortiniere just south of Tours. Versailles was a dream and a great slow integration into the city from the country. Paris was a lot. It was a complete 180 compared to the slow pace we had been operating at. While I didn’t particularly love it, we did have a good time. Would I go back? Probably not by choice. If it happens to line up with a trip somewhere in the future, sure, we’ll go, but we won’t be seeking it out again. The only thing I wish we would have done is go to the Louvre, but that would have taken DAYS to see and that’s not the kind of time we had this trip.

To be fair, the architecture in Paris, and really in France in general, was unique and pretty neat to see. Everything, at least in Paris, was built on such a grand scale it really does put most other European capitols to shame. Most major European cities feel very…city-ish. Most look like they could be anywhere, at least for the most part. But Paris was different in this regard; we’ve never seen buildings like we saw in Paris. So, from that standpoint, Paris was pretty cool and stands apart from other cities we’ve been to in Europe.

We ate enough food in two weeks to cover us for a month at home and I still managed to lose about 10 pounds. I can never rave about the quality of the food in Europe enough. It’s just something we don’t have easy access to at home. I hope that listing out all the places we ate gives you ideas for places you would like to try on your trip to France. The options are endless and Europe is truly a friendly place for all diets…although they might scoff a bit when you ask for gluten or dairy-free in a place known for their bread and cheese! But, you get used to it, and they’re very accommodating.

The rest of our blog posts about out trip through France before Paris can be found here.

Holy Smokes, 2023 is Winding Up in a Hurry!

We’re headed back to Scotland in November. I can’t wait to tell you about the weather, what is open that time of year, and what it is like trying to navigate the shorter days in the highlands.

But first, a trip to New York City for a wedding, Pennsylvania to meet our newest niece, and Branson for our final boutique show. It’s been a wild year. Thanks for coming along with us!

The post Paris: City of Love and…Food? first appeared on The DeBode Way.